Saturday, March 15, 2014

Game introduction: Threes!

Threes! is a game based on moving and combining numbers. It has been around on iOS already and is available for Android now as well. At the moment it costs around 1,43 €.

Threes! in Google Play



About the game


Threes! is a very addictive little game. It's purpose is to create high combined numbers by moving them around within a 4x4 playground. Every time you move, all numbers in the playground move at once until the border is reached, that is where numbers start merging according to some very simple rules.
  1. One merges with two into three.
  2. Two merges with one into three.
  3. Three and higher only merge with a twin of itself and doubles its value that way (e. g. 12 + 12 = 24)
  • 1 + 2 = 3
  • 2 + 1 = 3
  • 3 + 3 = 6
  • 6 + 6 = 12
  • 12 + 12 = 24
  • 24 + 24 = 48
  • 48 + 48 = 96
  • 96 + ...
Each time you merge two numbers by moving, you clear one spot on the playground. On the other hand, each time you move, one new number gets added. This means each time you do one merge you keep the count of numbers neutral, when you move without merging the playground gets filled up more, on the other side when you combine more than one pair with one move the playground gets cleared a bit.
This is important as the game ends when the whole playground is filled up and there is no more move option because of the lack of possible merges.

You can see a little demo animation of how the game works at their webpage or by the video within Google Play of course.

How does it looks like?


When you start the game there are options to start the game, get the basics by a very good tutorial or show the menu.

Startscreen.

The actual play screen is very simple and perfectly for smartphones. You can call the Stats and Menu and at the top in the middle you see an indicator of the next number showing up.

Game in progress.

At any time you can show the stats of your currently running game to see how you progress towards your earlier games and records.

Stats screen.

The game is using Google Play Game Services so you can see your progress towards thous in your circles or worldwide if you desire so. So please, come and see if you can beat me ;-)

My circles at Google Play Game Service.

In fact, if you look at the High Scores world wide you will notice how crazy the difference is to what I have played so far hehe.
Total top list at Google Play Game Service.


How does it sounds like?


Yes, this question is worth a separate topic. The music played in the background is very appealing and the number pads speak a little bit as well. Especially when you create a higher number than before it will greet in some way or also when you take a bit to long they get bored. The numbers give the feeling of living things waiting for your interaction ;-)

Conclusion


To me this is a very nice little game with a great addictive factor to it. It is easy to learn but hard to master and when you start playing it is hard to stop again. Also I like that more and more Android games use the Google Play Game Service to connect players a bit better as you can see how your doing against your friends and other crazy numbers worldwide. Further on it also enables you to go on with your progress on different devices
This is one of the better games for a short match in between other things but also able to keep you for a longer session.
In my opinion it's totally worth the purchase.